Recycling at its best in Maida Vale

Libraries are constantly reviewing, renewing and updating stock and one popular way of recycling unwanted items is to hold a sale.

This is what Maida Vale Library has been doing since 8 August, with children’s books from 30p, adult fiction from 50p and non-fiction from £2, plus CDs/DVDs at £1 each. Discounts are on offer for those customers who want to buy in bulk!

Despite the first day being very hot and humid customers came in their droves – over 150 people came to have a rummage. People came from far and wide, some looking for specific titles or illustrators. One couple were delighted to find a Wombles book for sale – they’re on the lookout for these to help them in their work as animators.

It was also great being able to talk to people about the library service and all the wonderful events and activities we put on. As a result of one conversation,  we’re hoping that an origami artist will come in and run a session for us ( – on checking his website following the sale I was very impressed to see that he had worked with a childhood heroine of mine, the great Valerie Singleton! – Ben).

It would have been incredibly difficult to set up and run the day without the help of one of Maida Vale Library’s longest serving volunteers, Lisa. Special thanks must go to Lisa for rolling up her sleeves yet again and helping move and sort the wall of boxes we had in storage the night before the sale and by helping manage the sale on the day itself. It just goes to show how valuable volunteers are and how they help support the staff in a variety of different ways.

We’re always looking for new volunteers, so if you’re interested in helping out, take a look at our Volunteering in Libraries & Archives page.

Talking of volunteering and recycling, we have also arranged for Westminster Recycling Champions to visit the library once a month to talk to residents about all things recycling in the City. With battery recycling and recycling bags already available in the library for collection, staff are also looking at offering other opportunities to reduce waste such as providing a “Give and Take” shelf for small unwanted items. However, more of that at a later date.

In the meantime, the sale of ex-library stock continues with new items being added each day. Come along and grab yourself a bargain.

[Ben]

The British Amateur Sleuth

The BBC recently started a new 6-part series Partners in Crime. It stars David Walliams and Jessica Raine as Thomas (Tommy) and Prudence (Tuppence) Beresford, an unsuccessful businessman and his wife who get drawn into a world of espionage and crime-solving during the Cold War days of the early 1950s.

The series has been adapted from two of Agatha Christie’s books – The Secret Adversary and N or M?  Agatha Christie wrote a number of books featuring these amateur sleuths interspersed between her other books. These books were actually first published in 1922 and 1941 respectively, and the last novel she wrote – Postern of Fate (1973) also featured the duo, having aged in keeping with the novel’s setting.

Christie’s best-known amateur sleuth is of course Miss Marple, who has been played by various actresses on film and TV, notably Margaret Rutherford and  Angela Lansbury on film, and Joan Hickson and Geraldine McEwan on TV.

Other contemporary authors from the ‘Golden Age’ of crime writing also featured amateur sleuths. They usually came from an upper-class background, for only they would have the time or the money to get involved. Margery Allingham had the aristocratic Albert Campion as her protagonist. Dorothy L. Sayers had Lord Peter Wimsey. But this was not always the case – for instance G.K. Chesterton created the priest-cum-detective Father Brown.

      

The concept of the British amateur sleuth is far from dead. There are a number of current authors who have created characters and written books in the style of the ‘Golden Age’ originals. One such is the US author Carola Dunn with her British 1920s heroine Daisy Dalrymple.  Simon Brett revives the aristocratic sleuth with his Blotto and Twinks series set around the post-First World War period. He has also created another character Mrs Pargeter, a widow who solves crimes with the help of her dead husband’s friends.

      

Amateur sleuth stories do not have to be set in the inter-war period! A present-day setting is the format for M.C. Beaton’s popular Agatha Raisin series featuring a former public relations executive who retires to the Cotswolds and soon finds herself involved in crime-solving. The first book in the series was Agatha Raisin and the quiche of death (2002).  On TV, the most popular amateur sleuth series is probably Rosemary & Thyme – the gardening duo who are always coming across dead bodies.

This year – 15 September, to be exact – would have been Agatha Christie’s 125th birthday. Reading – or re-reading – her novels or watching the BBC’s new series are just two ways to mark the occasion – visit www.agathachristie.com/125th-anniversary/ for more.

[Malcolm]

I Can Promise You a Rose Garden (The Marylebone Gardener)

One advantage of being located at Marylebone Library is its proximity to Regents Park, beyond the Marylebone Road traffic fumes. After enjoying crocuses and other spring flowers it is now floral blockbuster time at the Queen Mary’s Rose Garden.

To be honest I am not too inspired by the beds of a specific rose variety grown en masse. Yes, it is impressive to see “carpets” of brightly coloured flowers but this disguises the fact that the plant is nothing to write home about minus its floral wow factor (which admittedly in massed beds does intensify the plants’ scent).

  

However, if you take away these positives what is left – for much of the year – are some ugly stubby shoots sticking out from the main stem, ready to lacerate anyone who approaches too close!

It also does not help their cause that many hybrid tea roses are named after celebrities or sponsors eg “Redox Bouquet” – names that are hardly in keeping with the rose’s romantic and poetical associations.

This makes it seem I am not a rose fan. Not true! There are many climbing, rambling, wild and shrub roses which I consider attractive plants. An example of a rambling variety, ‘Rambling Rector’, is one of several varieties trained here on the ropes slung between posts to provide a dramatic garden feature. The posts and ropes frame the central circle containing the rose beds.

   

The garden also contains a number of varieties of shrub roses. These have a much better natural shape and therefore can be better fitted into a general planting scheme. Amongst the examples of historic varieties are a number of more recent varieties bred by the grower David Austin. Further examples of David Austin English roses can also be found nearby at Paddington Street Gardens South.

Lurking in curved border north-west of the central circular rose garden I was fortunate I discover another rose bred by David Austin “Kew Gardens“. I was so taken by the simple flowers and its useful habit of repeat flowering that I plan to include it to my new garden. There is not a strong perfume from the flowers but as it is a thornless rose one can approach the flowers closely to sniff without injury. It can be used for informal hedging and this effect can be seen here at Regents Park.

  

For anyone interested in growing roses check out the Library Catalogue for advice and inspiration. Remember you don’t need to travel to another library to pick up a copy. Simply reserve the copy from the catalogue and specify your home branch as the pickup location (there is a small charge for reservations – but it’s cheaper than the bus!).

    

If you’re now feeling inspired to grow roses, do use the useful RHS online resource Plant Finder to seek out nursery sources for your chosen variety.

[Francis]

Longlist, shortlist, Winner!

Have you seen our Book Awards page?
We’ve gathered all the contenders and winners of the UK’s most popular literary awards in one place! So if you’re keen to read a whole shortlist, want to know what all the fuss is about a particular winner, or are just looking for a great book to read – take a look. All our book lists link straight in to the library catalogue, so you can find out which libraries hold copies of the book you’re after and whether they’re available (you can reserve from here too).

The book awards we feature include the Man Booker, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Specsavers National Book Award and many more.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald won both the Costa Book of the Year Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. It’s the extraordinary story of the author coping with her grief following the death of her father by acquiring a goshawk called Mabel and a year-long plan to tame and train her to hunt.

In June we will find out the winners of the CILIP / Carnegie and CILIP / Kate Greenaway Medals (for children’s writing and illustration respectively). In the meantime, the always excellent shortlisted books for each prize are listed on the Book Awards page – including Jim’s Lion by Russell Hoban.

Each time a new shortlist is announced, the lists are refreshed – but we are gradually building a ’round up’ list of past prizewinners, so you can always be sure to find some great quality reading.

Borrow one today!

 [Sally]

Rivers of London: A Hidden Chapter

Ever wonder how the London Met fends off supernatural criminals in the capital?
Or if ghosts are real?
If Rivers could talk, what would they say…?

All these questions and more were answered in Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch‘s supernatural urban fantasy novel and our 2015 Cityread London book.

But the story didn’t end there.

Westminster Reference Library, in conjunction with Cityread and LookLeft LookRight Theatre hosted an interactive theatre performance that ran on Saturdays and Sundays throughout April. The top floor of the library was converted into a special police department: the official training centre for new recruits of the Supernatural Sciences Branch!

Anne tells us how she fared on her first day as a wizard’s apprentice….

“Unfortunately I did not have what it takes to become a new police apprentice studying magic at the Folly, but I had a really good time trying out for a place last Sunday.

Sixteen prospective applicants met at Westminster Reference Library, where the top floor had been transformed into The Folly – the training academy for the magic police division in the Cityread book Rivers of London. PC Peter Grant from the book spoke to us first and explained how we would be tested and then we were off in small groups to meet the different protagonists.

I saw Sir Isaac Newton first in a room where the Sherlock Holmes collection had been transformed into a 17^th Century study to explain the underlying principles of magic. Then it was onto see Inspector Nightingale who tested our powers of observation in a crime scene, and finally we met with Mama Thames herself and her daughter Beverley Brook. Although a number of us had passed the tests up to this point we all failed to produce a werelight in the laboratory, so none of us made the grade… but we all had a magical time trying.”

Cityread London was a brilliant experience for all concerned this year. We hope that you managed to get involved in some way, either by reading the book, coming to an event, or taking part in discussions online. Roll on Cityread 2016…

London in fiction – for World Book Night

On World Book Night Pimlico Library hosted a talk by two psychological thriller authors, Louise Voss and Louise Millar, who are part of the Killer Women group.

Focussing on the representation of London in their fiction, the authors also discussed their respective routes into writing and the creative process.

There was a lively discussion on many topics. The audience was particularly interested in the fact that Louise Voss co-authors books with Mark Edwards. They were intrigued by the writing process and the experience of writing alongside another author.

As it was World Book Night, after the discussion attendees were given free copies of either the Cityread London title Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch  or the WBN title Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by MC Beaton.

[James]

Writing about Russia

Paddington Library hosted an interesting event to celebrate World Book Night on 23 April. Four authors – Vanora Bennett, Francis Spufford, Peter Higgins and William Ryan – who specialise in writing fiction and non-fiction about Russia, conducted a panel discussion about the pleasures and challenges of this fascinating subject.

The authors gave first hand accounts of their visits to Russia and the sacrifices and hardships the Russian people have had to endure. I got the impression that Russia and the former Soviet Union are topsy turvy worlds in which nothing is what it seems. At the end they signed copies of their books. To explore their works, visit the library catalogue and search for books by Vanora Bennett, Francis Spufford, Peter Higgins and William Ryan

The four writers kindly gave their time to support World Book Night and as part of the celebrations, members of the audience were all given a free copy of Elizabeth Fremantle‘s historical novel The Queen’s Gambit which is about the life of Katherine Parr, the 6th wife of King Henry VIII.

[Laurence]

Three minutes, forty six point three two seconds

Thirty years ago, in July 1985, a world record was broken when Steve Cram ran a mile in 3 minutes, 46.32 seconds. Since 1913 when the International Association of Athletics Federations first recognised the men’s world mile record, it has been held by no fewer than six Britons including Roger Bannister, Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe, but Steve Cram is the last… so far. Read about his memories of setting the record, which held for eight years before being smashed by Noureddine Morceli. The current holder is the Moroccan Hicham El Guerrou.

Many of us will have had New Year’s resolutions to get fit but if, like most of us, you’ve gone back to the sofa, here’s your chance to try again. It’s not too late to enter the Bupa Westminster Mile which takes place on Sunday 24 May. The one-mile running event is the most famous mile in the world, starting on The Mall and finishing outside Buckingham Palace plus free entertainment and activities in Green Park throughout the day. You have plenty of time to train – don’t worry, you won’t be expected to do it in under four minutes! There is also a women-only race as part of This Girl Can, Sport England’s nationwide campaign to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability.

Westminster Libraries have plenty of books to help you – for example Running by Owen Barder and Running: the only book you’ll ever need by Art Liberman. Check out too the popular Couch to 5K programme, which aims to get even the least fit of us running 3 miles in only a few weeks. Best of all, running doesn’t have to cost much – as long as you have a comfortable pair of trainers, you don’t need to buy any special kit. Why not just get out there and give it a go?

         

Have a look too at our collection of online magazines, which includes Health and Fitness and Men’s Fitness. Or for a more philosophical approach, Haruki Murukami’s What I Talk About When I Talk about Running aims to explain his passion for marathons, triathlons and all things athletic while Adharanand Finn wrote a fascinating account of his attempt to find out the secrets of the Kenyan domination of middle and long distance running in Running with the Kenyans (SPOILER: they work really, really hard).

There may not be a British mile-record holder any more, but Paula Radcliffe’s   world marathon record (2:17:18) has stood since 2002 when she set it at the Chicago marathon. In fact Paula has set the three fastest times in history – the fourth place goes to Kenyan Mary Keitany who is more than three minutes slower (about a kilometre in marathon running) than her. Paula will be competing in this year’s Virgin London Marathon this weekend, running it for possibly the last time, along with approximately 40,000 other runners including some of the best in the world. It’s always a great sight – check out where you can get the best view to cheer on friends, relatives or just random strangers.

And if it inspires you to enter the Westminster Mile, all the better!

[Nicky]